Relieved Prague Hold Nerve In Shoot-Out

ZVVZ USK Prague did the business during crunch time by holding their nerve to ride out 91-88 winners in a real shoot-out against Novi Zagreb in EuroLeague Women Group C.

Defeat for the home side would have been a real hammer-blow to their play-off ambitions, but they pulled out a tight win after finally finding some telling defence during the last three minutes.

Having leaked 86 points, Natalia Hejkova and her players managed to find a way to lock down the visitors and restrict them to just one further basket and this was critical in a nervy conclusion.

It had initially looked like it was going to be a stroll in the park for Prague when a score by Ilona Burgrova put them 29-19 ahead at the beginning of the second period.

But, some four minutes later, they found themselves in shock as Novi Zagreb managed to get themselves 36-35 in front.

It then became a real roller-coaster ride with dramatic lead swings. Firstly, Prague went up by double-digits again at 50-40, only for the visitors to seemingly turn the game on its head with a spellbinding 21-3 run.

Ultimately, it ended up coming down to who could execute in the clutch and the answer was Prague who had Eva Viteckova harvest 21 points - her highest and most timely tally of the season so far.

Burgrova and Kia Vaughn missed out on double-doubles by one rebound apiece, whilst Elina Babkina debuted for Prague in the wake of her recent move from Municipal Targoviste but only played a handful of minutes.

There were also a string of excellent contributions from Novi Zagreb as Sandra Mandir finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Latoya Williams coralled 24 points and 12 rebounds.